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Monday, October 28, 2013

With the long weekend here in NZ, I had three days, in which to make some more progress...

First job was to ready the lighting rig; 20 twinkle effect yellow LEDs, wired together in a parallel circuit, so only one resistor was needed, which was wired in first to the positive terminal of the twin D size battery holder.

Lighting rig.

The lighting rig was then hot glued to a piece of MDF cut to fit the internal shape of the house, with 10 lights to either side. Another piece of MDF went across the top, so the battery holder could be placed in the roof void.

Lights and battery holder

Prior to installing the lights, I had put up the curtains. I found a supply of white material that would do for a net curtain effect, glued into place, over the lower half of each window. Then strips of material were glued in to effect curtains (handy having a mother-in-law who sews, and has an endless supply...)

Lighting and Curtains.

So with curtains fitted, and lighting in place; a quick picture. Not much to see in daylight;

...but with the lights out, the effect is quite pleasing; imagine these twinkling...

Night time lighting effect

Th last thing over the weekend, with the internals complete, was to add the perimeter pavement. Another piece of MDF. This will be clad with DAS clay, and a paving slab pattern etched in...

MDF pavement perimeter added

Also over the weekend, to get us in the mood for some Victorian era drama, I downloaded the Dracula sound track from ITunes...

... so we could have it playing, while playing Fury of Dracula, with my son Chris. Great fun :-)

Victory went to the Count! I vant to byte you neck, blah blah blah,...a little bit of Hotel Transylvania there too!... ;-)

Next up for the house, once pavement done, will be to add the Gaslamps, wire those in, add chimney pots, gutters and drain pipes and paint the whole thing... Nearly done now.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Guys, and Gals, in the wider blogging community, I am looking for a little help in ways to jazz up my blog posts a little...

One thing I would like to do is to be able to use more interesting Fonts on my blog posts.

For example, how would I add more options to the Font drop down menu in New Post, see pic below:

More Fonts wanted!

I am aware of Google Fonts but can't figure out how to add them to this...

Another thing I would like perhaps, is to create a little 'mood' with certain blog posts, via musical accompaniment. I don't just mean a Youtube video clip in the post you have to click on, but something a little more automatic, such that once a blog post is clicked on to view, its accompanying music will start to play automatically...

I've got a bunch of movie soundtrack stuff on my Ipod, and for example having an excerpt from say Sherlock Holmes playing alongside a Empire of the Dead post could be quite cool I thought...

Any clever people out there who can help please, comment below, or email me ( Email link in sidebar below Pirate picture).

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Werewolves, Order of the Dragon, Vampire Hunters, Arch Criminals, Baker Street set, Gentlemen with Guns and all the Freebie Stretch goal figures and more besides! To be honest I had forgotten exactly what I had ordered, as its been several months since the order was placed!

But all seems in good order. Sculpts appear to be good quality with little flash / mold lines.

The only thing is the figures seem more slender than I expected, but it could be the more recent figures I have painted, from their Vampire Wars ranges are just a little chunkier... I'll have to compare them to my Gentlemans Club, already painted, to see how they match...

The discount voucher is a nice little extra - I'll probably be going back for some Victorian Zombies, and maybe the Clickers...

Friday, October 11, 2013

Having taken the last week of the school holidays off to spend some time with the kids, I have also found myself with a little hobby time here and there, as playdates were organised for the kids, and naff weather (typical school hols huh?) has kept me inside...

So next job is to sort out the roof. I need to make a base lift off type structure as last time, using 'mounting card' - a thick card base used by picture framers. Its about 3mm thick card, and can be cut with a stanley-craft-type knife though it takes several passes against a steel rule.
Once this in position, I can start cladding it with card tiles for the roof tile effect. This will be the most laborious part of the project (small inward groan!) ;-)

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

In an attempt to increase the Ork forces for my sons army, I started a bit of conversion work.

He has long wanted a trukk for his orks, and rather than spend a small fortune on a GW one, the Scrooge in me decided to have a go at converting an old toy.

Chris had a large old toy '18 wheeler' that had seen better days... so I disconnected the tractor unit, and set to...

I didn't take a fully before shot, but having got to where I did over a few days, I thought it might be interesting to put back the bits and show how it started...

Here is more or less how it began...

The top canopy of the cab was cut away as was the rear cab area. The chassis was shortened by removing the mid section (black bit below).

Removed bits

The Chassis was glued back together, with several plastic panels glued across the join, to conceal it and strengthen it. A rear deck area was added. The side fuel tanks were re-positioned and the front wheel arch boxed in.

The most tricky bit was refitting the internal space of the cab, several pieces of plastic card cut and glued into position. I thought about adding a steering wheel and the various levers, and perhaps converting an ork into a proper driver, in a seat... but Chris liked the idea of just being able to stand an ork model in the cab area, and then be able to charge him out...so that may have to suffice.

Cab internal space fitted out...

So all this work got us to this point...

Ork Trukk WIP

At this point its a fairly regular truck again, but now its given me a foundation to work on, to fully 'ork-ify' it up...

Various riveted panels will be added all around, as will a spiked ram at the front. Then there's the spiked wrecking ball a on chain suspended from a pivoting gantry to add, and an assault ramp...

And of course some kind of Big Shoota!

It's been a rather fun exercise so far, and having some holiday time off with the kids mid term break has helped too.

One word of caution to the wise though, I did get a couple of minor chemical burns on my hand... while supergluing bits together, I was also using a spray zip-kicker too, and sprayed just as some of the glue dripped from the model onto my hand... OUCH! that stuff gets darn hot as it sets! Lesson learned indeed!

So more work to come...

In other news, I have finished brick etching the last wall of Victorian terrace #2 and managed to get done the rear facing yard wall. Just the internal yard walls to go...

Thursday, October 03, 2013

I 'bit the bullet', ordered the rules from the UK, and they arrived yesterday...

I managed to read through the main rules up to the Morale section last night. Looking forward to giving them a whirl with my young son, (who's mad keen), with my old figures, and those I got in the 'BlackReach' set.... trying to squeeze in the odd 40K marine and terminator in among the EotD stuff and FoW stuff on my workbench... to keep him happy...

I have always bemoaned the pricing and quality ('Failcast/Finecost') of GW figures in recent years, but something has occurred and been brought to my attention, that has me rather intrigued, amused and dare I even say even excited...

As has been the case for what seems like decades now, those fine little folk in the Orient have been taking ideas from the west, and invariably copying them, often making them far cheaper and perhaps in some cases even better?

Well that now appears to be the case with GW figures...

Various Chinese based suppliers are offering what amount to be copies of GW figures, made from a plastic/resin(?) material that seems as good if not better than than GW current Failcast...

They don't come pretty - no box, no instructions, just a plastic ziplock bag full of the bits you need...

As yet I have not ordered any, but am watching blog details of others who have..., so can't comment from personal experience...

If they turn out to be 'legit' and good quality, I'll be in with both feet...

To put things in perspective... if I were to buy the current Ghazkull (sp?) model for my son, prices:
From GW (NZ); NZ$73
From UK source; ~NZ$40 delivered
From China; ~NZ$25 delivered...

Its a no brainer really who's going to get my money... the traders have feedback ratings like on Ebay so you can 'buy' with confidence...

Watch these spaces...

Those wishing to check out more, go to

www.aliexpress.com , and search on Warhammer, 40k, etc... not the easiest site to navigate but you get there eventually...

It does of course leave you wondering what GW will do, or indeed can do about this, if anything?
Dropping local prices would be a start!

If any of you out there have experience in purchases from 'aliexpress', I'd be grateful for your feedback, comments below please...

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

I managed to finish my last but one pack of outstanding EotD themed figures; the 'London Thugs' pack from Westwinds Vampire Wars range.
There were 8 figures, as below, in the set, and they seemed the perfect bunch to represent the Mob, in the game...

London Thugs

...but the mob required 10 figures, so I have tagged in a couple of other previously done civilians to make up the numbers...

The Mob!

I only have a pack of 4 Zendarian heroes left to do, before my Requiem figures arrive...
In the meantime, I have got 3 facings of my current terrace building brick etched, just one more side to go...

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About Me

Long time gamer, starting with D&D basic set, as a pre-teen, way back in early 80's, though I no longer find time for RPGs. Now mostly a war-gamer and miniature painter and terrain maker. I am not the best table top tactician, but enjoy all the hobby offers; painting, terrain making and gaming.

Huge fan of Tolkien and MiddleEarth, and after LOTR movie trilogy was released, visited NZ with my wife Tracey. Liked it so much we emigrated there in '05. We have two great kids Chris and Becky.

Finished my first bit of new kit for Konflict '47... the German Spinne (Spider) Light PanzerMech. A light recce walker with Light AT g...

Wargaming

In terms of gaming and figure collecting I prefer the 28mm scale for just about all periods; ancients, medieval, pike and shot, horse & musket, WWII and fantasy/Sci-Fi. Its just a nice size figure to paint, for the detail without being excessive in size, nor too fiddly to handle.

Most pictures on this blog can be enlarged for viewing by clicking on them. Where a blog post has an embedded video, and you wish to view a picture in that post, right click on picture and view in new tab or window, and this should keep video playing too.

Please note, whist I have not gone down any formal copyright procedure route in terms of this blog and its content, if you wish to use something from it, either pictures of models I have painted or games in action, or written content, just drop me a line, and ask first. Its the decent thing to do!